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John Bunyan (1628–1688)

(picture courtesy of David Lachman)

“Venture All for God”Piety in the Writings of

John Bunyan

Introduced and Edited by Roger D. Duke and Phil A. Newton

with Drew Harris

Reformation Heritage BooksGrand Rapids, Michigan

“Venture All for God”© 2011 by Roger D. Duke and Phil A. Newton

Published byReformation Heritage Books2965 Leonard St. NEGrand Rapids, MI 49525616-977-0889/Fax: 616-285-3246e-mail: [email protected]: www.heritagebooks.org

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other wise — except for brief quotations for the purpose of review or comment, without the prior permission of the publisher, Refor-mation Heritage Books.

Printed in the United States of America11 12 13 14 15 16/10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bunyan, John, 1628-1688. “Venture all for God” : piety in the writings of John Bunyan / John Bunyan ; introduced and edited by Roger D. Duke and Phil A. Newton with Drew Harris. p. cm. — (Profiles in Reformed spirituality) ISBN 978-1-60178-153-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Christian literature, English—History and criticism. 2. Theol-ogy—Early works to 1800. I. Duke, Roger D. II. Newton, Phil A. III. Harris, Drew L. IV. Title. BR75.B865 2011 230’.58—dc23 2011037629

For additional Reformed literature, both new and used, request a free book list from Reformation Heritage Books at the above address.

For unceasing support of the gospel and our ministries,

we lovingly dedicate this book to our wives, Linda Duke and Karen Newton.

— RoGER DuKE and PHIL NEWToN

For encouragement and love as we begin our pilgrimage in Christ together,

I lovingly dedicate this book to my wife, Jenny Harris.

— DREW HARRIS

PRofiles in RefoRmed sPiRituAlityseries editors — Joel R. Beeke and Michael A. G. Haykin

Other Books in the Series: Michael Haykin, “A Consuming Fire”: The Piety of Alexander Whyte of Free St. George’s

Michael Haykin, “A Sweet Flame”: Piety in the Letters of Jonathan Edwards

Michael Haykin and Steve Weaver, “Devoted to the Service of the Temple”: Piety, Persecution, and Ministry in the Writings of Hercules Collins

Michael Haykin and Darrin R. Brooker, “Christ Is All”: The Piety of Horatius Bonar

J. Stephen Yuille, “Trading and Thriving in Godliness”: The Piety of George Swinnock

Joel R. Beeke, “The Soul of Life”: The Piety of John Calvin

Thabiti Anyabwile, “May We Meet in the Heavenly World”: The Piety of Lemuel Haynes

Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, “A Habitual Sight of Him”: The Christ-Centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin

Matthew Vogan, “The King in His Beauty”: The Piety of Samuel Rutherford

James M. Garretson, “A Scribe Well-Trained”: Archibald Alexander and the Life of Piety

Table of Contentso

Profiles in Reformed Spirituality . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv The Piety of John Bunyan (1628–1688) . . . . . . . . 1

section one: Christ our Advocate

1. Advantages and Privileges for Those Who Have Jesus Christ as Advocate. . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

2. The Physician Who Cures Gets Himself a Name and Begets Encouragement in the Minds of Diseased Folk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

3. Things Related to the Promises of Christ our Advocate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

4. Concerning Christ’s Sacrifice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725. Concerning Eternal Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746. Concerning Christ’s Blood—our only Plea. . . 76

section two: Christ Jesus the merciful savior

7. Christ’s Mercy offered to the Biggest Sinners Redounds Most to the Fame of His Name. . . . 81

8. Christ’s offer of Mercy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859. Encouragement to the unbeliever Not

to Despair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

viii “Venture All for God”

10. Mercy offered to All Sinners — Great or Small! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

11. What Is Meant by This “Water of Life”?. . . . 97

section three: Hope for sinners

12. A Great Sinner’s Encouragement to Come to Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

13. Biggest Sinners Have the Most Need of Mercy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107

14. God’s “Bending” of Men’s Hearts. . . . . . . . .11115. Born of God: A Sermon on John 1:13 . . . . .11516. The Excellence of a Broken Heart

before God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11917. The Questioning Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12318. A Contrite Heart before God. . . . . . . . . . . . .128

section four: true Humility

19. Four Things That Are Acceptable to God . . .13320. The Evil Effects of the Sin of Pride. . . . . . . .13421. Some Signs of a Broken Heart, of a

Broken and Contrite Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

section five: Christian ethics

22. A Simple Christian’s View of Extortion . . . .14323. Instructions for Righteous Trading . . . . . . . .14624. Strictures against Fraudulent Bankruptcy. . . .150

section six: the Gospel Applied

25. What It Is to Be offered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15726. Prison Meditations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162

Table of Contents ix

section seven: Warnings

27. God Would Show the Greatness of His Anger against Sin and Sinners. . . . . . . . . . . .171

28. Reasons or Causes for Pride . . . . . . . . . . . . .17529. of the unchangeableness of Eternal

Reprobation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17830. Warning to False Professors of Religion . . . .18231. Without Godly Repentance, the Wicked

Man’s Hope and Life Die Together . . . . . . . .186

Reading Bunyan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191

Profiles in Reformed Spiritualityo

Charles Dickens’s famous line in A Tale of Two Cities — “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” — seems well suited to western evangelicalism since the 1960s. on the one hand, these decades have seen much for which to praise God and to rejoice. In His goodness and grace, for instance, Reformed truth is no longer a house under siege. Growing numbers identify themselves theologically with what we hold to be biblical truth, namely, Reformed theology and piety. And yet, as an increasing number of Reformed authors have noted, there are many sectors of the surrounding western evangelicalism that are charac-terized by great shallowness and a trivialization of the weighty things of God. So much of evangelical wor-ship seems barren. And when it comes to spirituality, there is little evidence of the riches of our heritage as Reformed evangelicals.

As it was at the time of the Reformation, when the watchword was ad fontes —“back to the sources”— so it is now: The way forward is backward. We need to go back to the spiritual heritage of Reformed evangel-icalism to find the pathway forward. We cannot live in the past; to attempt to do so would be antiquarian-ism. But our Reformed forebearers in the faith can teach us much about Christianity, its doctrines, its passions, and its fruit.

xii “Venture All for God”

And they can serve as our role models. As R. C. Sproul has noted of such giants as Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards: “These men all were conquered, overwhelmed, and spiritu-ally intoxicated by their vision of the holiness of God. Their minds and imaginations were captured by the majesty of God the Father. Each of them pos-sessed a profound affection for the sweetness and excellence of Christ. There was in each of them a singular and unswerving loyalty to Christ that spoke of a citizenship in heaven that was always more pre-cious to them than the applause of men.”1

To be sure, we would not dream of placing these men and their writings alongside the Word of God. John Jewel (1522–1571), the Anglican apologist, once stated: “What say we of the fathers, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Cyprian?... They were learned men, and learned fathers; the instruments of the mercy of God, and vessels full of grace. We despise them not, we read them, we reverence them, and give thanks unto God for them. Yet...we may not make them the foundation and warrant of our conscience: we may not put our trust in them. our trust is in the name of the Lord.”2

Seeking, then, both to honor the past and yet not idolize it, we are issuing these books in the series Profiles in Reformed Spirituality. The design is to introduce the spirituality and piety of the Reformed

1. R. C. Sproul, “An Invaluable Heritage,” Tabletalk 23, no. 10 (october 1999): 5 – 6.

2. Cited in Barrington R. White, “Why Bother with History?” Baptist History and Heritage 4, no. 2 (July 1969): 85.

Profiles in Reformed Spirituality xiii

tradition by presenting descriptions of the lives of notable Christians with select passages from their works. This combination of biographical sketches and collected portions from primary sources gives a taste of the subjects’ contributions to our spiritual heritage and some direction as to how the reader can find further edification through their works. It is the hope of the publishers that this series will provide riches for those areas where we are poor and light of day where we are stumbling in the deepening twilight.

— Joel R. Beeke Michael A. G. Haykin

Prefaceo

Books come together in various ways. This book came out of the interesting work of providence in the editors’ lives. Phil and Roger met over twenty years ago and kept in contact through conferences. Just a couple of years ago, Roger and his family became members of South Woods Baptist Church in Memphis, where Phil serves as senior pastor. Both Phil and Roger love books, church history, and theol-ogy and enjoy making a contribution to the church through writing. Discussion on book collaboration began to take shape when Roger spoke with noted Baptist historian Dr. Michael Haykin about put-ting together a book on John Bunyan. With Dr. Haykin’s encouragement and Dr. Joel Beeke’s posi-tive response, this book on Bunyan’s piety found life.

God’s providence had prepared the writers for this challenge on Bunyan. In 2007, Phil was asked to give four lectures on John Bunyan for students of his alma mater, the university of Mobile. The Heritage Conference, sponsored by Lafitte Baptist Church of Saraland, Alabama, was well attended by enthusiastic collegians. During the summer of 2002, Roger provided a lecture in a doctoral class at the university of the South, an Episcopal university, on the significant Baptist father John Bunyan. The

xvi “Venture All for God”

two events resulted in manuscripts on John Bunyan waiting for a place to land. But without some signifi-cant editorial work to put them together, that could not happen.

Drew Harris began attending South Woods shortly after Roger and his family joined. While par-ticipating in a pastoral internship program, Drew did a book review for the rest of the interns. His skill in synthesizing and evaluating his assigned book demonstrated superb journalistic gifts. When Phil and Roger began discussing the possibility of putting their manuscripts together into a book addressing John Bunyan’s life and piety, Drew immediately came to mind as the one with the gifts to bring it about.

John Bunyan speaks for himself. The editors’ task (and a joyous one at that) has been to simply let Bun-yan speak, and in doing so, to encourage believers to “venture all for God.” As much as that has been accomplished, the editors give thanks to the Lord.

Note of interest: The image used at the end of most selections is one of the three bronze panels on the pedestal of the John Bunyan statue in Bedford, England. Each panel depicts a scene from Pilgrim’s Progress. The one used here portrays Christian’s meet-ing with Evangelist.

I had also this consideration, that if I should now venture all for God, I engaged God to take care of my concernments; but if I forsook him and his ways, for fear of any trouble that should come to me or mine, then I should not only falsify my profession, but should count also that my concernments were not so sure, if left at God’s feet, while I stood to and for his name, as they would be, if they were under my own [care]. —John Bunyan

John Bunyan

The Piety of John Bunyan (1628–1688)o

John Bunyan ventured all for God in the face of immeasurable religious and political upheaval. For a century before his birth and throughout his lifetime, England was in continual turmoil as the country vacillated between monarchical and parliamentar-ian government. Intertwined with this struggle for power were the competing interests of Roman Catholicism, the Church of England, and Protestant Separatists. This historical milieu of political unrest and religious persecution by the English government provides a necessary framework for understanding the life and works of Bunyan. Bunyan’s persecu-tion and imprisonment shaped his own faith and personal piety, and the theme of Christian suffering reverberates in much of his writing.

During the English Reformation of the sixteenth century, Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547) sought legal accommodation to divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. He enacted the 1534 Act of Supremacy that established the Church of England as distinct from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry became head of the church, with his reforms being

2 “Venture All for God”

primarily ecclesiological, not theological.1 under Edward VI, Henry’s son, the communion cup was restored to the people, the clergy allowed to marry, images removed from the church, and the Book of Common Prayer (1549, 1552) published as the litur-gical standard.2 In 1549, Parliament passed the First Act of uniformity coinciding with the publication of the Book of Common Prayer. It “abolished the Latin mass and made a new liturgy (the prayer book of 1549) the legal form of worship.”3 Though revolu-tionary for English citizens, this eventually proved to be a destructive act for the Puritans, including John Bunyan, whose imprisonment was the direct result of the First Act of uniformity.

Mary I (r. 1553–1558) ascended the throne, reversing Protestant reforms and reestablishing Roman Catholicism as the state religion. She filled the Tower of London with Protestant prisoners and executed many whose stories were later recorded in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. When Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603) succeeded Mary I, she restored Anglicanism by the Second Act of Supremacy in 1559, declaring herself to be the governor of the church. The Second Act of uniformity (1559) restored the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer.4 Elizabeth I was the last of the Tudor monarchy and was followed by Stuart

1. Stephen Nichols, Pages from Church History: A Guided Tour of Christian Classics (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R, 2006), 200–201.

2. Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity (Peabody, Mass.: The Prince Press, 2001), 2:75–76.

3. owen Chadwick, The Penguin History of the Church: The Refor-mation (New York: Penguin Books, 1972), 117–18.

4. Chadwick, History of the Cburch, 101, 132.

The Piety of John Bunyan 3

monarch James I (r. 1603–1625). His reign produced the colonization of the New World and the 1611 Authorized Version of the Bible. Charles I (r. 1625–1649) followed James I, and “with his reign the Reformation took a few steps back.” His Catholic wife unduly influenced him, while his ineptness and inflexibility set him at odds with Parliament, laying the foundation for the English Civil War during the 1640s.5

under oliver Cromwell’s leadership, parliamen-tary forces defeated King Charles’s army in 1649 and then beheaded Charles later that year for high treason. Cromwell took the title of Lord Protector, leaving Britain without a monarchy. The monarchy was restored in 1660 under Charles II, and the period can be summed up as a time of “reaction against the Puritans.”6 This governmental crackdown was so harsh that none of the dissenting groups went unscathed. For Parliament and the general popula-tion, the persecution of a minority who was seen to cause political, religious, and social unrest was better than the whole nation being in turmoil.

With restoration of the episcopacy and the Book of Common Prayer, the achievements of the Puritans and Dissenters were reversed. In 1662, the Act of uniformity forced all English ministers to believe and hold worship according to prescribed doc-trines and liturgy. Those who did not conform were ejected from their positions. “This ‘Great Ejection’ saw about 20 percent of English clergy excluded,

5. Nichols, Pages from Church History, 205.6. Gonzalez, Story of Christianity, 162.


including Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Inde-pendents, and about twenty Baptists who held livings put out.”7 The Conventicle Act in 1664 applied to Baptists like Bunyan most directly. “It set severe penalties for holding unauthorized worship services or ‘conventicles’ with more than five persons present beyond the immediate family. This did not prevent Baptists from meeting but did make their meetings more dangerous.”8

Persecution continued during Charles II’s reign, with his deathbed conversion to Roman Catholicism explaining much of the harsh treatment that Bunyan and other Puritans faced for nonconformity to the state religion. In 1689, a year after Bunyan’s death, Prince William of orange and Mary, daughter of James II, demonstrated tolerance in their coregency, highlighted by the 1689 Act of Toleration that granted religious freedom even to those not swear-ing allegiance to the Thirty-Nine Articles. Too late for Bunyan to enjoy, the door was opened for other Puritans and nonconformists to preach the gospel without encumbrance.

early yearsJohn Bunyan was born November 30, 1628, to a moderate working-class family in the village of Elstow near Bedford and was baptized into the Church of England. Bunyan’s father was a tinker, a mender of pots and other household utensils,

7. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Witness (Nashville: Broadman, 1987), 115.

8. McBeth, Baptist Heritage, 115.

map of Bedford and elstow

Bunyan was born near the village of Elstow. He moved to Bedford in 1655 and lived

there for the rest of his life.


and Bunyan followed his father in this profession. Bunyan’s parents could not afford extensive formal education for their son, but in Bunyan’s own words, “Notwithstanding the meanness and inconsider-ableness of my Parents, it pleased God to put it into their heart, to put me to School, to learn both to Read and Write.”9

Bunyan wrote virtually nothing about his par-ents, indicating their limited spiritual influence. He was not as reserved regarding his own spiritual condition as a boy and young man. He states in his autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, that from childhood he had few equals in personal ungodliness. He was given to “cursing, swearing, lying, and blaspheming the holy name of God,” and throughout his teenage years, he had no thought of God, of piety, or of heaven and hell.10 Though Bunyan accounted himself easily given to sin, he despised any religious hypocrite. If someone pro-fessed to be religious but didn’t live the part, he said, “It would make my spirit tremble.”11 This attitude may have spurred his development of a wide array of hypocrites in his most famous work, Pilgrim’s Progress, with such characters as Pliable, Presumption, For-malist, and Hypocrisy.

Despite his propensity toward sin and ungodli-ness, Bunyan later believed that God’s sovereign

9. John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, in The Works of John Bunyan, ed. George offor (1854; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991), 1:6. All Bunyan quotations and extracts are taken from this three-volume edition of his works.

10. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:6.11. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:7.


mercy protected him during his formative years. In Grace Abounding, he recalls how the Lord pro-tected him in situations when he could have died. For example, in the English Civil War, he swapped guard duty with another soldier who was killed while serving on Bunyan’s watch. Bunyan testified that “I with others were drawn to go to such a place to besiege it: but when I was just ready to go, one of the company desired to go in my room, to which, when I consented he took my place: and coming to the siege, as he stood sentinel, he was shot into the head with a musket bullett, and died.”12 This undoubtedly impacted Bunyan’s piety and view of God’s sovereignty.

In 1649, as a twenty-one-year-old, Bunyan mar-ried. Though no record exists of his first wife’s name, he considered his marriage “an important turning point in his life.”13 Bunyan explained, “This woman and I, though we came together as poor as poor might be, not having so much household stuff as a dish or spoon betwixt us both, yet she had for her part, The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven [Arthur Dent, 1601], and The Practice of Piety [Lewis Bayly, c. 1613], which her father had left her when he died.”14 Bun-yan treasured the books and read them thoroughly. Although he was not yet spiritually awakened, he found inspiration in them to become religious.

12. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:7.13. David Calhoun, Grace Abounding: The Life, Books and Influ-

ence of John Bunyan (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2005), 14.

14. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:7.


Though not abandoning his wicked life, Bunyan began to attend church regularly and entered into the religious superstitions often characteristic of his day.15 All the while he had no conviction of sin and was not truly converted. Later, Bunyan recognized that genuine conviction of sin and evangelical repen-tance are always present in true conversion, and he emphasizes these themes in Pilgrim’s Progress and other writings.

Conviction of sin and ConversionAfter his pastor preached a sermon on the evil of Sabbath breaking, Bunyan began to take serious inventory of his life. He was accustomed to devoting Sundays to “delight in all manner of vice.” For the first time, he felt the guilt of sin and believed that the parson had conspired to preach particularly against him. Later that day, Bunyan was convicted by God when “a voice did suddenly dart from heaven into my soul which said, Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?” He sensed the Lord looking at him with displeasure, but he thought that Christ would not forgive him. Recall-ing this experience, he wrote, “I felt my heart sink in despair, concluding it was too late; and therefore I resolved in my mind I would go on in sin.”16 He rea-soned that since he was already damned, he might as well be damned for many sins as for a few.

Reflecting on this time, Bunyan admitted that this conclusion motivated him to “taste the sweetness” of



sin. He pursued sin with “as much haste” as he could, thinking that he would soon die. He later observed that many Christians face this temptation from the Devil, who seeks “to overrun their spirits with a scurvy and seared frame of heart, and benumbing of conscience.” Still God continued to work in his life. Bunyan wrote of an occasion when the Lord shamed him by an ungodly woman. As he stood “cursing and swearing” near the house of “a very loose and ungodly wretch,” she complained about his curs-ing and rebuked him, saying that he would “spoil all the youth in a whole town, if they came in [his] company.”17 Providentially, God convicted Bunyan of sin through this experience, and after the rebuke of this woman, he laid aside his cursing—even to his own amazement.

Around this same time, Bunyan began to read the Bible. outwardly, Bunyan’s life began to trans-form and he was convicted of some sin, but he did not know Christ. After his conversion he wrote, “Wherefore I fell to some outward reformation, both in my words and life, and did set the commandments before me for my way to heaven; which command-ments I also did strive to keep, and, as I thought, did keep them pretty well sometimes, and then I should have comfort.”18 His self-righteousness increased to the point where he thought that he “pleased God as well as any man in England,” and some of his neigh-bors began to commend him as a godly man.19

17. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:9.18. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:9.19. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:10.


Bunyan took pride in the praise of men, admitting later that he “loved to be talked of as one that was truly godly.” He thought that his outward behavior evidenced being a Christian, so he took consolation in the comments of others about his morality. As he later understood, he had no confidence in Christ and no assurance that he belonged to Christ. He confessed, “But poor wretch as I was, I was all this while ignorant of Jesus Christ, and going about to establish my own righteousness; and had perished therein had not God, in mercy, showed me more of my state of nature.”20

In Bunyan’s search for salvation from the con-demnation of God, he traveled his own long and wrenching pilgrimage. He was a self-righteous man, numb to the truth of the gospel. Yet God showed him great mercy when he overheard a conversation between several poor Christian women discussing how miserable they were before coming to Christ. They spoke of the new birth and the work of God in their hearts—truths that Bunyan did not under-stand. They demonstrated remarkable joy as they talked of God’s love and the abundant ways that the Lord had comforted them. Scripture laced their conversation with grace and peace, and Bunyan said it appeared “as if they had found a new world, as if they were people that dwelt alone, and were not to be reckoned among their neighbours.”21 It turned out that the women were members of the church


Bunyan and the Poor Women

Bunyan’s meeting with the poor women, who were members of the independent church led by John Gifford,

marked a turning point in his spiritual life.


pastored by John Gifford, who would eventually become Bunyan’s pastor and mentor.22

As a result of this conversation, Bunyan began to contemplate his own lack of real spiritual life. He went back to his work but dwelled on the wom-en’s words. True conviction pinpointed his faulty foundation of good works, and a mighty upheaval occurred in his soul:

At this I felt my own heart began to shake, as mistrusting my condition to be nought; for I saw that in all my thoughts about religion and salvation, the new birth did never enter into my mind, neither knew I the comfort of the Word and promise, nor the deceitfulness and treach-ery of my own wicked heart.... Thus, therefore, when I had heard and considered what they said, I left them, and went about my employment again, but their talk and discourse went with me; also my heart would tarry with them, for I was greatly affected with their words, both because by them I was convinced that I wanted the true tokens of a truly godly man, and also because by them I was convinced of the happy and blessed condition of him that was such a one.23

overhearing a simple conversation among a few Christians became the means God used to arrest John Bunyan’s mind from his self-dependence.

In Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan gives a wonderful picture of a similar experience in the conversion of Hopeful, who lives in the town of Vanity Fair.

22. Calhoun, Grace Abounding, 17.23. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:10.


Though Christian and Faithful are manacled in a cage, Hopeful listens to their conversations and watches their lives, even in the midst of suffering. After Faithful’s death, Hopeful joins himself to Christian, enters into covenant with him, and tells him that he will be his companion on the journey. Bunyan narrates, “Thus one died to make testimony to the truth, and another rises out of his ashes to be a companion with Christian in his Pilgrimage.”24

It seems that the Holy Spirit regenerated Bunyan about this time, as evidenced by his reflection on what happened next. He found his heart especially tender to Scripture, and he was convicted by the Word of God. unlike previous occasions when conviction resulted in superficial changes, now his whole being felt the weightiness of his sin. He tes-tified as well to “a great bending of my mind to a continual meditating on [the gospel spoken by these poor folks], and on all other good things which at any time I heard or read of.” 25 His mind, now fixed on eternity, could not be moved by the mundane issues of life. He was consumed with the kingdom of God. Bunyan had new desires for Christ and His kingdom, and he despised sin. Even though he had little knowl-edge, the Holy Spirit protected him from the error of those who believe that sinning liberally causes grace to abound. He admitted that their teaching would

24. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream, in Works, 3:132.

25. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:11.


have seemed very sweet to him previously, but now he saw their teaching as flawed and accursed.26

Bunyan was baptized by Puritan pastor John Gifford and became a member of his Separatist congregation in 1655.27 Though Gifford’s time with Bunyan was relatively brief, his influence on Bun-yan’s life and writings was lasting. Bunyan soaked up everything that he heard from the pulpit and read in Scripture. Reflecting on those times, Bunyan wrote, “How was my soul led from truth to truth by God!... For, to my remembrance, there was not anything that I then cried unto God to make known and reveal unto me but he was pleased to do it for me; I mean not one part of the gospel of the Lord Jesus, but I was orderly led into it.” Bunyan’s love for the Word of God grew and influenced all of his writings. He explained, “The Bible was precious to me in those days,” as he looked into it “with new eyes.” He continued, “Indeed, I was then never out of the Bible, either by reading or meditation; still crying out to God, that I might know the truth, and way to heaven and glory.”28 This characteristic of Bunyan caused C. H. Spurgeon to later comment, “Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God.”29

26. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:11.27. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:20.28. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, in Works, 1:11.29. C. H. Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography (London: Pass-

more & Alabaster, 1897), 4:268.

SECTIoN oNE

o

Christ our Advocate

st. John’s Church

The independent congregation of Bedford, led by John Gifford, met in this building

when Bunyan joined the church.

1o

Advantages and Privileges for Those Who Have

Jesus Christ as Advocate

An...advantage that those who have Jesus Christ as their advocate is this: He is always ready, always in court, always with the Judge then and there to oppose if our accuser comes, pleading against him what is pleadable for His children. And the text implies this where it says, “We have an advocate with the Father” [1 John 2:1], always with the Father. Some lawyers, though they are otherwise able and shrewd, yet not being always in court and ready, do suffer their poor clients to be baffled and non-suited1 by their adversary. Because of this neglect, a judgment is made against the client for whom the advocate has undertaken to plead, to the client’s great perplexity and damage. But Satan can have no such opportunity with our Advocate, for He is with the Father—always with the Father—as to be a Priest, so to be an Advocate: “We have an advocate with the Father,” always with the Father.

From The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate: Clearly Explained, and Largely Improved, for the Benefit of All Believers, in Works, 1:180–82.

1. nonsuit: A judge stops the suit when, in his opinion, a plaintiff fails to prosecute a case or brings insufficient evidence.


Also, the book of Hebrews shows us the careful-ness of our Advocate, where it says He is gone “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb. 9:24). Now, just the time present; now, the time always present; now, let Satan come when he will! Nor is it to be omitted that this word now that thus specifies the time, the present time, does also conclude it to be that time in which we are imperfect in grace, in which we have many failings, in which we are tempted and accused of the Devil to God; this is the time, and in it, and every moment of it, He now appears in the presence of God for us. oh, the diligence of our enemy! oh, the diligence of our Friend! The one is against us, the other for us, and that continually—“If any man sin, we have an Advo-cate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

There are three things in judgment that a lawyer must take heed of: one is the nature of the offense, the other is the meaning and intention of the lawmakers, and a third is to plead for those who are in danger, without respect to affection or reward. And this is the excellency of our Advocate: He will not, cannot be biased to turn aside from doing judgment.... “The just LoRD...one that will not do iniquity”—that is, no unrighteousness in judgment (Zeph. 3:5). He will not be provoked to do it, neither by the continual solicitations of your enemy, nor by your continual provocations caused by your infirm condition that might often tempt Him to do it.

Now...Jesus Christ is righteous, and...He pleads for us by the new law, with which Satan has noth-ing to do, nor, even if he had, can he by it bring in a plea against us because that law, in the very body

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of it, consists in free promises of giving grace to us and of an everlasting forgiveness of our sin (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 36:25–30; Heb. 8:8–13). o children, your Advocate will stick to the law, to the new law, to the new and everlasting covenant, and will not admit that anything should be pleaded by our foe that is inconsistent with the promise of the gift of grace and of the remission of all sin. This, therefore, is another privilege that those who have Jesus Christ to be their Advocate are made partakers of. He is just, He is righteous,...He will not be turned aside to judge awry, either of the crime or the law, for favor or affection. Nor is there any sin but what is pardonable committed by those who have chosen Jesus Christ to be their Advocate.

Another...advantage that they have who have Jesus Christ to be their Advocate is this: The Father has made Him, even Him who is your Advocate, the umpire and judge in all matters that have, do, or shall fall out between Him and us. Mark this well: For when the Judge Himself, the Judge of the nature of the crime for which I am accused and of matter of law by which I am accused, will be my Advocate—to wit, whether it is in force against me to condemnation or whether by the law of grace I am set free, especially since my Advocate has espoused my cause, promised me deliverance, and pleaded my right to the state of eternal life—must it not go well with me...? It was a great thing that happened to Israel when Joseph became their advocate and when Pharaoh had made him a judge. “Thou,” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “shalt be over my house, and accord-ing unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. See, I


have set thee over all the land of Egypt—and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt—only in the throne will I be greater than thou” (Gen. 41:40–44).

What do you say, poor heart, to this? The Judge—to wit, the God of heaven—has become your Advocate, arbitrator in your business; He is to judge. God has referred the matter to Christ, and He has a concern in your concern, an interest in your good prosperity. Christian man, do you hear? You have put your cause into the hand of Jesus Christ and have chosen Him to be your Advocate to plead for you before God and against your adversary.... Are you also willing that He should decide the matter? Can you say unto him as David said, “Judge me, o God, and plead my cause” (Ps. 43:1)? oh, the care of God toward His people and the desire of their wel-fare! He has provided them an Advocate, and He has referred all causes and things that may by Satan be objected and brought in against us, to the judgment and sentence of Christ our Advocate.

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The Physician Who Cures Gets Himself a Name and Begets

Encouragement in the Minds of Diseased Folk

By curing the most desperate first, the physician not only earns himself a name, but he also encourages other diseased folk to come to him for help. Hence, you read of our Lord that after, through His tender mercy, He had cured many of great diseases, His fame was spread abroad: “They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. And there fol-lowed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan” (Matt. 4:24–25). See here, He first, by working, gets Himself a fame, a name, and renown; and now men take encour-agement, and bring their diseased to Him from all quarters, being helped by what they had heard to believe that their diseased should be healed.

Now as He did with those outward cures, so He does in the offer of His grace and mercy. He offers

From The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, in Works, 1:76–78.


first to the biggest sinners, that others may take heart to come to Him to be saved.... But why did He do all this? “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). See, here is a design: God lets out His mercy to great sinners by...design, even to show to the ages to come the exceed-ing riches of His grace, in His kindness to them through Christ Jesus.

For this reason,...in saving sinners,...He had a design to provoke others to come to Him for mercy. So the same design is here set on foot again, in His calling and converting these...sinners, “that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace,” says Paul, “in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.” There is yet one hint behind. It is said that God saved these “for his great love”; that is, as I think, for the setting forth, for the com-mendation of His love, for the advance of His love in the hearts and minds of them that should come after. As who should say, God has had mercy upon and been gracious to you that He might show to oth-ers, for their encouragement, that they have ground to come to Him to be saved. When God saves one great sinner, it is to encourage another great sinner to come to Him for mercy.

He saved the thief to encourage thieves to come to Him for mercy; He saved Magdalene to encour-age other Magdalenes to come to Him for mercy; He saved Saul to encourage Sauls to come to Him for mercy, and Paul himself says this: “For this cause,” says he, “I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for

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a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Tim. 1:16). How plain are the words! Christ, in saving [Paul], has given to the world a pattern of His grace, that they might see and believe and come and be saved, that they who are to be born hereafter might believe on Jesus Christ to life everlasting.

But what was Paul? Why, he tells you himself: “I am,” says he,” the chief of sinners.” “I was,” says he, “a blasphemer, a persecutor, an injurious person; but I obtained mercy” (1 Tim. 1:13). Yes, that is well for you, Paul, but what advantage do we have because of that? “oh, very much,” says he: “For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (v. 16).... Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners because, by their forgiveness and salvation, others, hearing of it, will be encouraged the more to come to Him for mercy. It may well, therefore, be said to God, “Thou delightest in mercy, and mercy pleases Thee” (Mic. 7:18).

Christ Jesus will not miss in His design of offer-ing mercy, in the first place, to the biggest sinners. You know what work the Lord, by laying hold of the woman of Samaria, made among the people there. They knew that she was a town sinner, an adulteress, even one who, in the most audacious manner, lived in uncleanness with a man who was not her husband. But when she, after a turn of her heart, went into the city and said to her neighbors, “Come”—oh, how they came! How they flocked out


of the city to Jesus Christ! Then they went out of the city and came to Him. “And many of the Samari-tans of that city [people, perhaps, as bad as herself] believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did” (John 4:39). That word, “He told me all that ever I did,” was a great argument with them, for by that they gathered that though He knew her to be vile, He did not despise her or refuse to show how willing He was to communicate His grace to her; and this fetched over first her, then them.

I once heard a story from a soldier who...had laid siege against a fort, that so long as the besieged were persuaded their foes would show them no favor, they fought like madmen. But when they saw one of their fellows taken and received with favor, they all came tumbling down from their for-tress and delivered themselves into their enemies’ hands. I am persuaded that if men believed that there is that grace and willingness in the heart of Christ to save sinners, as the Word imports there is, they would come tumbling into His arms. But Satan has blinded their minds so that they cannot see this thing. Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus has, as I said, that others might take heart and come to Him, given out a commandment that mercy should, in the first place, be offered to the biggest sinners. “Begin,” says He, “at Jerusalem.”1

1. The Jerusalem Sinner Saved is Bunyan’s extended exposition of Luke 24:47. Bunyan uses the “Jerusalem sinner” as an extended metaphor throughout the treatise as a great sinner who needs to come to Christ for mercy.

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Things Related to the Promises of Christ our Advocate

There are many things relating to the promises, as to the largeness and narrowness of words, as to the freeness and conditionality of them, that we are not able so well to understand, and, therefore, when Satan deals with us about them, we quickly fall to the ground before him. We often conclude that the words of the promise are too narrow and rigid to comprehend; we also truly think that the conditions of some promises do utterly shut us out from hope of justification and life. But our Advocate, who is for us with the Father, He is better acquainted with and learned in this law than to be baffled out with a bold word or two or with a subtle piece of hellish sophisti-cation (Isa. 50:4). He knows the true purport, intent, meaning, and sense of every promise and piece of promise that is in the whole Bible. He can tell how to plead it for advantage against our accuser, and He does so. And I gather it not only from His contest with Satan for Joshua (Zech. 3) and from His conflict with him in the wilderness (Matt. 4) and in heaven (Rev. 14), but also from the practice of Satan’s emis-saries here; for what his angels do, he also does.

From The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, in Works, 1:184–86.


Now there is here nothing more apparent than that the instruments of Satan do plead against the church, from the pretended intricacy, ambiguity, and difficulty of the promise, so I gather Satan also does this before the tribunal of God. But there we have one to match him; “we have an Advocate with the Father” who knows law and judgment better than Satan and statute and commandment better than all his angels. And by the verdict of our Advocate, all the words and limits and extensions of words with all conditions of the promises are expounded and applied!

There are many other things relating to our lives that serve our accuser with occasions to make many objections against our salvation, for, besides our daily infirmities, there are in our lives gross sins, many horrible backslidings. Also we often suck and drink in many abominable errors and deceitful opinions, all of which Satan accuses us before the judgment seat of God and pleads hard that we may be damned forever for them. Besides, some of these things are done after light received, against present convictions and dissuasions to the contrary, against solemn engagements to amendment when the bonds of love were upon us (Jer. 2:20). These are crying sins; they have a loud voice in themselves against us and give to Satan great advantage and boldness to sue for our destruction before the bar of God. Nor does Satan lack skill to aggravate and to comment profoundly upon all occasions and circumstances that did attend us in our miscarriages—to wit, that we did it without a cause. Also, had we had grace to have used them, we had many things to help us

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against such sins and to keep us clean and upright. “There is a sin unto death” (1 John 5:16), and he can tell how to labor by argument and cunning speech to make our transgressions not only to border upon, but to appear in the hue, shape, and figure of that and based on that make his objection against our salvation.... But there he meets with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Advocate, who enters His plea against him, unravels all his reasons and arguments against us, and shows the guile and falsehood of them.

He...also pleads as to the nature of sin, as also to all those high aggravations, and proves that neither the sin in itself, nor yet as joined with all its advanta-geous circumstances, can be the sin unto death (Col. 2:19), because we hold the head and have not “made shipwreck” of faith (1 Tim. 1:19). But still, as David and Solomon did, we confess and are sorry for our sins. Thus, though we seem through our falls to come short of the promise with Peter (Heb. 4:1–3), and leave our transgressions as stumbling blocks to the world with Solomon, and minister occasion of a question of our salvation among the godly, yet our Advocate fetches us off before God. And we will be found safe and in heaven at last by them in the next world who were afraid they had lost us in this.

But all these points must be managed by Christ for us, against Satan, as a lawyer, an advocate, who to that end now appears in the presence of God for us and wisely handles the very crisis of the word and of the failings of His people together with all those nice and critical juggles by which our adversary labors to bring us down, to the confusion of his face.


But, Satan, here is also sufficient matter for a plea for our Advocate against you. For as much as the next words distinguish between drawing back, and drawing back “unto perdition,” every one that draws back does not draw back unto perdition (Heb. 10:38–39). Some of them draw back from, and some in the profession of, the gospel. Judas drew back from, and Peter in the profession of his faith; for that reason Judas perishes but Peter turns again, because Judas drew back unto perdition, but Peter yet believed to the saving of the soul. Nor does Jesus Christ, when He sees it is to no effect, at any time step in to endeavor to save the soul. Because of this Christ turns Judas over to Satan for his backslid-ing from the faith and leaves him in Satan’s hand, saying, “When he shall be judged, let him be con-demned: and let his prayer become sin” (Ps. 109:7). But Christ will not serve Peter so—“The LoRD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged” (Ps. 37:33). He will pray for him before and plead for him after he has been in the tempta-tion and so secure him by virtue of His advocation from the sting and lash of the threatening that is made against final apostasy.

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